Horizon Zero Dawn: Guerrilla Games Explain How They Managed To Put Ants In The Game

Done to make the environment “come alive”.

Guerrilla Games’ Horizon: Zero Dawn has garnered quite the positive praise since its launch. Many players also pointed to some of the amazing details in the game, including ants climbing up tree trunks. What inspired that level of fidelity?

Glixel spoke to art director Michiel van der Leeuw and it was explained how animators would take time out of the day to implement the ants. “It was one of the effects guys.

“They felt like the environment needed something to make it come alive. We’d been watching a lot of nature documentaries at that time, I think. It’s a very simple hologram with a custom animation that a shader artist made because the engine is quite flexible, in truth.”

We’ve already seen how each tribe in each region has their own customs and dress sense but this is a whole level of attention to detail. If you completed everything in Horizon: Zero Dawn, don’t worry – a story expansion is currently in development, though it doesn’t have a release date yet.